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Angela Farquhar is a self-described "sucker for a loyalty program."
The 32-year-old teacher from Waubaushene, Ont., collects PC Optimum Points and Petro Points, but Air Miles are her favourite. She pays close attention to bonus events in order to rack them up faster.
But with her husband off work for two months due to the pandemic and travel looking unlikely for the foreseeable future, Farquhar — like many Canadians —has had to change the way she uses her rewards. This year, instead of buying airline tickets, she used her Air Miles to buy a backyard slide her daughters, Mackenzie, 3, and Alexandra, 1.
"Mackenzie absolutely loves it and I just started sliding Alexandra down too," Farquhar says. "She actually thinks it's more fun taking turns with her sister."
Charlene Suchy, however, is taking the opposite approach.
The 37-year-old divemaster from Pefferlaw, Ont., is a devoted Air Miles collector, but has decided to save up rather than spend on non-travel items.
"I'm currently looking at either round trip flights or an all-inclusive package using my miles," she says. I'm not sure of a destination yet, but have a few in mind for when we can travel again. My trip will only be nicer the more miles I can save."
So which is the right approach when it comes to rewards cards? Save up in the hope a vaccine will make travel possible relatively soon? Or use the points right now?
According to Patrick Sojka, the founder of Rewards Canada and an expert on travel rewards, Canadians are increasingly looking to do the latter, despite the fact that travel typically offers better value.
"The loyalty programs have told us that more people are using their rewards for merchandise, more people are redeeming for gift cards. It's definitely happening."
Whether that's the right strategy depends on your financial situation, says Sojka.
"If you're an average income earner and you don't have a way to rack up miles quickly, short-term benefits are probably a healthy way to look at it. A lot of programs tend to devalue over time, and there's uncertainty over the lack of travel and the global economy generally."
For those in higher income brackets, continuing to accumulate miles may be the better option. "It might not matter to you that a business class flight will cost 20,000 more miles in a year and a half," says Sojka.
The good news is that even travel-focused loyalty programs have become more flexible in recent years, including Air Canada's recently relaunched Aeroplan program.
"Whether it's merchandise, gift cards, tickets, Amazon purchases, cashback options: there's a whole gamut of options, depending on the program, says Sojka. "Most of them have added more, you just have to find the program that suits your needs.
The other option is to ditch your rewards card and switch to a cash-back credit card, though Sojka says this strategy has some drawbacks. For starters, cash-back cards tend to offer lower-percentage returns on purchases than travel rewards. And most cash-back cards only pay out once a year, making them less useful for those in search of short-term financial relief, though some, such as TD's Cash Back Visa, allow you to redeem much sooner.
Whatever rewards strategy you choose, Sojka's final piece of advice is to check to see when your points expire. Most programs have 12 to 24-month inactivity rules if you're not earning or redeeming. Many pushed that forward due to the pandemic, but the deadlines will return.
"Either earn a mile or spend some on a reward," he says. "That keeps them active."
ALSO READ: Latest COVID-19 travel advice another blow to B.C. tourism
Alex McClintock, The Canadian Press
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Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Joseph E. Mieczkowski is the host for this Emmitsburg series. A resident of nearby Fairfield, Pennsylvania, Joe is a Civil War living historian and educator. Joe portrays Lincoln's Secretary of War, Simon Cameron as well as Gettysburg resident, David Wills. In addition Joe is a Licensed Town Guide in Gettysburg. He is also the past President of the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable.
Educated at Salem College, Salem, West Virginia and at Pennsylvania State University, Joe has been employed for over 30 years with the Social Security Administration. He has served in a variety of locations and assignments including 16 years as a manager and director in Washington D.C. Presently he is the Area Director in Harrisburg PA.
If you would like to contact Joe, click here to reveal his email address.
To see Joe Mieczkowski's previous series on Gettysburg Idols click here.
In today's Emmitsburg post, Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Joe Mieczkowski shows us a historical Emmitsburg mural, the Toll House on the Frederick Road, and the area of the Great Emmitsburg Fire.
To see other posts by Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guides, click here.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
PTL Roletta Sans View
PTL Roletta Slab View
PTL Roletta Sans and Slab: After seven years of work, primetype hast just released PTL Roletta, a comprehensive round family consisting of a sans and a slab variant, combining functionality and playfulness. Originally designed for the use on screen, the typeface works equally well as a text face on paper. While Roletta's round shapes are discreet and barely visible at small sizes, they give the typeface its distinctive character with many refined details when used at display sizes. With five weights per style, including caps and italics, PTL Roletta Sans and Slab are excellent companions, well-suited for a wide range of text uses. The OpenType version includes many advanced layout features with various figure sets, alternate characters and geometric symbols. The basic TrueType version contains the normal range of characters.
The typeface will be extended with more family members.
Andrea Tinnes is a Berlin based designer and professor of type and typography at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle. She released her typefaces PTL Skopex Gothic and Serif at the primetype library.
------------------------------------------- families + fontformates
PTL Roletta Sans | OpenType
PTL Roletta Slab | OpenType
PTL Roletta Sans Basic | TrueType
PTL Roletta Slab Basic | TrueType
------------------------------------------- Special
PTL Roletta Sans + Slab | Complete | OpenType 590 Euro / normal 760 Euro
(all prices plus vat tax)
------------------------------------------- new typestructure
OpenType: The PTL Roletta is available as OpenType incl. caps, figure sets, alternates and experts.
TrueType: The PTL Roletta Basic is available as TrueType with standard western encoding. Features like optional figure sets, alternates or expert sets are not included. Normal fonts and Caps fonts are separate. (others name this fonts «Office», we think «Basic» is the better naming)
------------------------------------------- typeview primetype
Based on the new typestructure we have to overwork our website. We are sorry for the the missing options of typeview, we will change it soon.


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Charlotte, NC – Denny Hamlin revealed on his Twitter account on Thursday that he will not appeal the $25,000 fine he received one week ago for making derogatory comments about the new Sprint Cup Series car.
Hamlin also noted that he remains firm in his intentions to not pay the fine. His critical remarks about the Gen-6 came after the conclusion of the March 3 Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway.
"After a lot of thought I have decided not to appeal the fine NASCAR has issued," he tweeted. "Dragging myself, my team and NASCAR through the mud for the next 2 weeks would not be good for anyone. I firmly believe I am in the right on this issue and will stand behind my decision not to pay. I understand NASCAR will do what they feel is necessary based on my decision. Thanks to all of my fans and peers who have supported me in this decision. I look forward to putting it to rest."
Hamlin notified NASCAR that he is dropping the appeal. Per its rule book, NASCAR will deduct the $25,000 from Hamlin's race winnings. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has collected a total of $653,619 after the first three races this season.
NASCAR issued a statement, saying "The $25,000 fine assessed to driver Denny Hamlin on March 7 will be settled per Section 12-3 of the 2013 NASCAR rule book after being informed by Hamlin that he will not appeal the penalty. Hamlin was fined after the sanctioning body determined he had violated Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing). NASCAR considers this matter closed."
After his third-place finish at Phoenix, Hamlin was asked what his thoughts were of the Gen-6 following the second race of the season. He responded, "I don't want to be the pessimist, but it did not race as good as our generation five cars. This is more like what the generation five was at the beginning. The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file, and you cannot get around the guy in front of you. If you would have placed me in 20th-place with 30 (laps) to go, I would have stayed there. I wouldn't have moved up. It's just one of those things where track position is everything."
NASCAR fined Hamlin for that comment, noting he "made some disparaging remarks about the on-track racing that had taken place that afternoon (March 3)." Hamlin was furious when he learned of his penalty and said he was not going to pay the fine. Shortly after, he notified NASCAR in writing that he would appeal the penalty. He continued to voice his opinion on Twitter.
"The short of the long of it is I believe I was severely disrespected by NASCAR by getting fined," Hamlin tweeted. "I believe that the simple fact of us not even having a conversation about this issue before I was hit with a fine has something to say about our relationship."
Bristol Motor Speedway is hosting the fourth Sprint Cup race of the season this weekend. Hamlin won the night race at this track last August.


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The Lynnfield Preview: Rumblings of Revenge
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 29, 2009 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Making Nehalem Affordable: LGA-1156
Take the Core i7, shave off one memory controller and replace the high bandwidth QPI link with Intel's slower DMI and you've got the makings of a (more) mainstream Nehalem.
Many have been calling this processor the Core i5 although I'm not quite ready to jump on that bandwagon, so I'll keep referring to it by its socket (LGA-1156) or codename (Lynnfield).
Intel's QPI is a very fast bus delivering up to 25.6GB/s of bandwidth. The image below shows you how Intel sees it being useful:
If you've got a multi-socket system (e.g. dual processor Xeon workstation, or Skulltrail successor) or if you've got a lot of high bandwidth PCIe devices (e.g. multi-GPU or lots of Larrabees) then QPI makes a whole lot of sense. However, if you've got a single socket system and aren't running a lot of high bandwidth PCIe devices then QPI is overkill.
Intel's DMI is the link used between the X58 chipset and the ICH10 I/O controller, it's a much more conservative bus capable of delivering 2 - 4GB/s of bandwidth. That's enough bandwidth for things like SATA and USB but a single PCIe x16 slot can deliver 16GB/s of bandwidth, far too much for Intel's DMI.
Instead of crippling graphics on its mainstream platform, Intel did the next best thing and integrated 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes onto the die of its mainstream Nehalem part.
What you get looks like this:
A Lynnfield system only need two chips (CPU + PCH) while a Bloomfield system needs three (CPU + IOH + ICH)
The 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes can be configured as one x16 or two x8, allowing you enough bandwidth and very low latency to do things like CrossFire or SLI. Any additional PCIe lanes will branch off of what Intel is now calling the Platform Controller Hub (PCH). The first PCH is Intel's P55 chipset; all you need is a Lynnfield CPU and the P55 PCH, no additional ICH is necessary as all of that functionality is embedded in the PCH.
The price of Intel's P55 PCH is also much lower than the X58 chipset, in fact P55 is expected to be price competitive with P45 + ICH10. In other words, we should eventually see P55 boards priced at $100 or less.
Getting rid of QPI and one of the three DDR3 channels knocked down the pin-count of LGA-1366, but adding in 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes brought it back up to 1156 which you can count in the socket below:
I've blacked out the motherboard around it and the caps in the middle to protect the innocent.
95 Comments
View All Comments
fpaat - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link
Cheap as*es who keep buying these lower spec broken underclocked BS parts contribute to the decline of PC gaming.
There is exactly zero reasons to release so many different chips, except for crap manufacturing.
Buy an i7, be done. i5 = celeron = piss off Intel. ATI and NVIDIA can piss off as well for release 10 different versions of video cards per generation. -
fpaat - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link
I LoL at people who still buy the "celeron" equivalent of computer parts.
It's fine if your a teenager on a budget, but if you're an adult still buying gimp'd parts because you can't afford proper components, well, fail. -
grimpr - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - link
Smart users would simply buy a fast SSD disk and a Windows 7 Home premium 64bit pack. Anand may glorify to heavens Lynnfield i5 but there is not a single excuse for dumping perfectly good hardware from 2006 upward for Intels new mainstream platform. Best upgrade would be in 2011 with a brand new platform from AMD, new CPU's from both companys that carry the AVX instruction sets, cheap low latency and fast DDR3-1600 ram as a standard, mature,cheap and fast DX11 cards, PCI-EX 3.0 and many more things. -
Hrel - Saturday, June 6, 2009 - link
I HATE their stupid price fixing screw the consumer crap. CPU's over 200 dollars are useless, that's simply too much for a CPU. They won't give us dual cores based on nahaylem cause they'd have to charge 190 and less; OH NO! Greedy bastards. I REALLY want AMD to get back on top so prices get driven down again.
It's INFINETELY infuriating that the ONLY way that intel charges fair prices is if someone else MAKES them. -
Hrel - Saturday, June 6, 2009 - link
Seriously??? E8400 anyone? I REALLY don't care about having 8 threads, like even you said in this article, doesn't really help consumers. I'm far more interested in highly clocked dual cores, and wish Intel would release dual core CPU's based on the new architexture, throw HT onto a solid dual core and I can't see any games in the near future even fully utilize it.I'd MUCH rather see a 4GHz dual core cpu with HT than some more stupid quad cores at sub 3GHZ clock speeds. This is 2009, we need to leave the sub-3GHz range in the history books. -
HexiumVII - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - link
Lynnfield looks mighty good. Unfortunetly USB3 and SATA3 are looming. Since they won't be integrated into mobos for a while, high bandwidth on the PCIe slots for add-in cards will be crucial for the transition. I don't know about you buys, but USB3.0 will be the most exciting upgrade we had in a while. -
MasterShogo - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
I'm not really sure if this has been talked about at all, but it seems to me that the option for an Nvidia-supplied chipset providing integrated graphics, and it still be good, isn't completely lost.
I think you have to ask, why does a person want Nvidia integrated graphics in the first place? I see two reasons. For one, to provide a "business-like" or super-simple PC that has adequate graphics performance for normal stuff and simple games, but with a powerful processor. For this use, Nvidia could just make a chip that uses 8 of the PCIe lanes coming out of the CPU socket and leave the other 8 for the user/vendor to optionally provide a faster video card. Sure, that slot wouldn't have the awesomeness of a 16x PCIe slot, but it would be perfectly fine for this machine. Plus, the added video card could still use hybrid SLI or something similar for power-saving purposes...
Which leads me to the other reason people (like me) might want it. Power savings via hybrid-SLI. I would personally want all 16 lanes coming out of the CPU socket for my SLI setup or just one monster card. But in this case, I think it would be perfectly fine to have a 3rd party P55-like chip provide hybrid-SLI video for power savings. I wouldn't care about the starved DMI link, because I would never expect that video chip to do anything difficult, that's what I have the other video cards for! This is assuming the drivers work well enough to switch over very seamlessly when it needs to happen.
In other words, I think there is still enough input/output throughput for Nvidia to sell chips that use integrated graphics, but it is just going to be more spread over the board now, making their electrical design more difficult. Possibly requiring two different chips to provide for the two different scenarios. I don't see why they couldn't do it, though.
Or even better, make a 3rd party chip that can accept, as an interface, both the DMI and the PCI links coming out of the socket, but only using what is available in the particular board you are manufacturing at the moment. Maybe that would be too expensive, though. Any thoughts on how feasible that may be?
In any case, I don't need the three memory channels. It's not that I don't WANT them, it's that they don't help me at all. It's not like I'm running a major database server in my bedroom or anything. But having a direct PCI connection to the CPU would be cool, and I think this processor is just super-duper for a variety of reasons. -
Kreed - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
In terms of Photoshop CS4 performance, would a 2.8GHz i5 outperform 2.66GHz i7 920?
Beno - Sunday, May 31, 2009 - link
if you test the i7 920 with HT off, lynfield will lose number 1 in those gaming benchmarks
why didnt you bench it without HT? -
genkk - Sunday, May 31, 2009 - link
is there any new mobos like the dragon platform to bench, anad is even using an old catalyst driver......
... your 65% chipzilla and 35% chimpzilla


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Minimum Wage Hike Would Give Women A Needed Boost
They Are Worth A Four-Cent Increase On A Pizza Delivery
By Cathy Osten, Toni Walker and Mae Flexer
May 17, 2013
Recently, the Appropriations Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly took a strong step toward growing and strengthening the wages of Connecticut's lowest-wage earners by voting to increase the state's minimum wage. In doing so, the committee also took a stand for women, as women are disproportionately impacted by a low minimum wage.
According to the National Women's Law Center, six in 10 of the 106,000 minimum-wage workers in Connecticut are women; many of them are mothers and heads of households. Any Connecticut citizen working full time at minimum wage lives below the poverty line. But for a single mother, $16,500 per year is less than half the living wage in Connecticut (the living wage is the cost of housing, food and transportation per household.)
During testimony in favor of the increased minimum wage, University of Massachusetts economist Jeanette Wicks-Lim showed that Connecticut's current proposed increase of $9.75 would not negatively impact businesses or result in job losses. According to Wicks-Lim, the average business could cover the cost of an increased minimum wage by raising their prices by two-tenths of 1 percent, or to put it simply, by raising the cost of a $20 item by four pennies.
Mothers, caretakers, nurturers and providers are both on the front lines of our workforce and the backbone of our households. These women are worth a 4-cent increase on a pizza delivery, two tickets to a movie or a pair of summer shorts. An increase in pay for women puts money right back on Main Street, allowing families the ability to build stability and save for their children's futures.
Each year, the minimum wage has lost ground on the cost of living. Since its peak in 1968, low-wage workers have effectively taken a pay cut each time inflation forced the cost of living up. As the economy continues to shift toward low¿wage jobs, we must be vigilant and ensure that workers do not continue to fall behind.
Low-wage workers who have had minimal or no pay raises over the years have felt their purchasing power dwindle. If the minimum wage kept pace with inflation, that $16,000 today would be about $21,000 in 2013 dollars. That's why, in addition to raising the minimum wage, any legislation passed needs to ensure that the minimum wage automatically adjusts each year to keep up with the cost of living.
Big-box retailers, national casual dining restaurants and fast-food chains have expanded their establishments and profits by employing scores of women at legal wage minimums. Many in the business community have historically opposed minimum wage increases, fearing the worst if they are forced to pay employees any more.
But according to a 2012 National Employment Law Project report, the 50 largest employers of low-wage workers are now in a stronger financial position than before the recession: 92 percent were profitable last year, 75 percent have higher revenues and 73 percent have higher cash holdings. Executive compensation averaged $9.4 million last year at these firms.
Voting for or against bills that any constituent group individual, family, business or otherwise believes will negatively affect them is not an easy decision. But we cannot continue to have full-time workers living well below the poverty line.
We're reminded of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009. These pieces of legislation were drafted and passed to regulate, strengthen and protect the right of a woman to receive fair and equal pay for equal work. Even with these acts in place, women still only earn about 77 cents for every dollar a man makes.
While increasing the minimum wage will not recover every cent lost to the gender wage gap, it is a step in closing it. An increased minimum wage will also send a message to our state's working families that we, as legislators, understand and are willing to fight for Connecticut's lowest-paid working women, because they deserve better.
State Sen. Cathy Osten is a Democrat from Sprague. She's Senate chairwoman of the Labor Committee, where the minimum-wage bill originated. State Reps. Toni Walker and Mae Flexer are Democrats from New Haven and Killingly, respectively. Ms. Walker is house chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee. Ms. Flexer is House vice chairwoman of Appropriations.
Includes option to search related Hartford sites.
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Alan Keyes on Principles & ValuesAmerican Independent nominee for President; 2004 Republican challenger for IL Senate |
Since the founders of AIP are primarily long-time Keyes supporters, their opposition to Barack Obama is simply an extension of the work against the presumptive Democrat nominee that they started four years ago during the Illinois Keyes/Obama Senate race.
And though we are beaten, and though we are defeated, time and time again, we shall rise up and go on fighting! We do not fight for victory, but we shall fight until victory is won.
Sadly, I think a lot of our political leaders don�t seem to understand this. They don�t seem to understand that a country that is based, as we are, on the truth that our rights come from God cannot hope to survive unless we revive our allegiance to the existence and the authority of God.
Every issue we face, every problem we face, can be traced back to our abandonment of this principle. I believe that the time is long passed when we must hoist on high the banner of our Creator, God, and never let it fall again, though we die for it!
A: I believe deeply that God is the reason why we do what we do. I think our dedication to Him and in gratitude for what He has done for us in sending our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the reason we do what we do. But I sometimes think when we ask candidates this kind of a question, we are, in a way, missing what is the more difficult point. The crisis of our time does not occur and does not exist because some individuals in our politics did not have sufficient faith in God, did not follow His path, did not say their prayer. It occurs because they do not have the guts to stand up and remind the American people that we cannot and will not remain free if we do not acknowledge the authority of God, if we do not submit to His will! It is a national question that requires that we take the passion of our faith, and with courage and without equivocation, lay ourselves on the line for that truth, no matter what the cost.
A: I got a call about some kind of participation in it, and I expressed some reluctance. The organizer said, �We are building podiums for candidates. If you want, I�ll build you a podium.� I was really taken aback at this, at first. You all know I�ve been out on the hustings a number of times, and been pretty well beaten up. It has an effect on you, after a while, and it did on me, to be sure. But the more I thought about it and prayed over it, the more it seemed to me that the one thing I�ve always been called to do is just raise the standard--not to worry about anything else, but to make sure that, clearly articulated, there is the sense of this national standard of our allegiance to God and His authority that has been the foundation stone of our nation�s life. And so I finally called her back and said, �Build me a podium.� And so, I will be participating in the Values Voter Debate on Monday as a candidate.
We are going to be asking that people rely on the reality of their own efforts to build the number, which will be posted on our website, and show clearly around the country who has stepped forward to take this challenge. As that number builds, that becomes the reality that can influence this country, that can determine this nation, for change.
A: I am. I just got through sending the form in to the FEC--Form 2, that it�s called--and I am standing forward. I will raise this banner. And I�ll challenge people to step forward and understand that this is not something that I can do. That�s where we�ve gone wrong. We�ve been brainwashed into thinking that politics is something we watch on TV, while other people put together campaigns, and so forth. You know what that�s about? I�ve seen these surveys that tell us that 90% of the people in the media don�t think that God has anything to do with morality.
Q: That�s right, I�ve seen the surveys.
A: That means that we are dealing with a godless media. People need to realize that they can�t rely on the godless media and expect to come to conclusions that are consistent with God�s authority.
A: Top 3 issues are clear:
Thank you so very much for your calls, letters, and emails urging me to accept the Illinois Republican Party�s nomination for the United States Senate. I am humbled and honored by your overwhelming pledges of support in this endeavor. After careful deliberation, and on the strength of deep and contemplative prayer, I have decided to accept this nomination.
I make to the voters of Illinois, and all those watching this race in the coming months, just one promise:
I aim to strengthen the foundations of political liberty in America. I believe that it remains the destiny of the American people to uphold the right of all humankind to practice responsible self-government. Dedication to this Providential purpose is the heart and soul of what it means to be an American. I will labor to:
Nothing meets this purpose more completely than the principles and logic of our own Declaration of Independence, so I have made it the explicit basis for dealing with the moral crisis we now face. The Declaration is fundamentally a statement of the principles of justice that define the moral identity of the American people.
We have forgotten the principle that ou rights come from God. You can�t have it both ways. Either our rights come from God, as our Declaration of Independence says, or they come from human choice. If they come from human choice, then our whole way of life is meaningless, it has no foundation.
A: The black liberal leadership for some decades now have abandoned the fate of the black community to the likes of people who have supported policies that have destroyed the black family, that support abortion. We�re looking at a generation of toadies--people who essentially are self-serving. They�re doing what�s necessary to keep their position in a liberal and socialist left-wing establishment that has been devastating for the black community. The president ought to go, issue by issue, through things like gay marriage and abortion, where this black leadership stands in opposition to the God-believing heart of many, many people in the black community, and he ought to confront them with the fact that they are out of step with the faith and decent values of many people in the black community.


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Your portal to paradise in the Nicoya Peninsula, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
www.tajalin.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, tel: 2642-0061
Comentarios deshabilitados.
On the 22nd of June, 2012, a public hearing was held to present the Cabuya-Montezuma Coastal Zoning Plan. This hearing was held at salon Los Caraos in Cóbano at 10:00 a.m.
Coastal Zoning PlanClick to see in PDF format
Camara De Turismo Montezuma


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[Dmitry Gr.] built a simple circuit to playback digital audio. At the center you can see an 8-pin PIC 12F1840 microcontroller. It's pulling audio data from a microSD card which is read through a full-sized SD card adapter to which he soldered jumper wires for all of the necessary connections. There is one additional semiconductor, a FET which is used to drive the speaker seen to the left. Unregulated power is provided by a pair of AA batteries (four are seen in the picture above but only two are actually connected to the circuit). He's planning to post his code package soon, but for now you'll have to be satisfied with a couple of demo videos and a schematic. Both videos are embedded after the break, and we've also included a screenshot of the schematic which is shown in the second video.
This is very similar to the 1-Bit Symphony CD we saw almost a year ago in a links post. That one used a jewel case instead of the protoboard seen here, and had a headphone jack instead of the speaker.


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The Java Tutorials have been written for JDK 8. Examples and practices described in this page don't take advantage of improvements introduced in later releases and might use technology no longer available.
See Java Language Changes for a summary of updated language features in Java SE 9 and subsequent releases.
See JDK Release Notes for information about new features, enhancements, and removed or deprecated options for all JDK releases.
Introduction to the Service Provider Interfaces explained that the javax.sound.sampled.spi
and javax.sound.midi.spi
packages define abstract classes to be used by developers of sound services. By implementing a subclass of one of these abstract classes, a service provider can create a new service that extends the functionality of the runtime system. The previous section covered the use of the javax.sound.sampled.spi
package. This section discusses how to use the javax.sound.midi.spi
package to provide new services for handling MIDI devices and files.
There are four abstract classes in the javax.sound.midi.spi
package, which represent four different types of services that you can provide for the MIDI system:
provides MIDI file-writing services. These services make it possible for an application program to save, to a MIDI file, a MIDI Sequence
that it has generated or processed.MidiFileReader
provides file-reading services that return a MIDI Sequence
from a MIDI file for use in an application program.MidiDeviceProvider
supplies instances of one or more specific types of MIDI device, possibly including hardware devices.SoundbankReader
supplies soundbank file-reading services. Concrete subclasses of SoundbankReader
parse a given soundbank file, producing a Soundbank
object that can be loaded into a Synthesizer
.An application program will not directly create an instance of a service object—whether a provider object, such as a MidiDeviceProvider
, or an object, such as a Synthesizer
, that is supplied by the provider object. Nor will the program directly refer to the SPI classes. Instead, the application program makes requests to the MidiSystem
object in the javax.sound.midi
package, and MidiSystem
in turn uses concrete subclasses of the javax.sound.midi.spi
classes to process these requests.
There are three standard MIDI file formats, all of which an implementation of the Java Sound API can support: Type 0, Type 1, and Type 2. These file formats differ in their internal representation of the MIDI sequence data in the file, and are appropriate for different kinds of sequences. If an implementation doesn't itself support all three types, a service provider can supply the support for the unimplemented ones. There are also variants of the standard MIDI file formats, some of them proprietary, which similarly could be supported by a third-party vendor.
The ability to write MIDI files is provided by concrete subclasses of MidiFileWriter
. This abstract class is directly analogous to javax.sampled.spi.AudioFileWriter
. Again, the methods are grouped into query methods for learning what types of files can be written, and methods for actually writing a file. As with AudioFileWriter
, two of the query methods are concrete:
boolean isFileTypeSupported(int fileType) boolean isFileTypeSupported(int fileType, Sequence sequence)
The first of these provides general information about whether the file writer can ever write the specified type of MIDI file type. The second method is more specific: it asks whether a particular Sequence can be written to the specified type of MIDI file. Generally, you don't need to override either of these two concrete methods. In the default implementation, each invokes one of two other corresponding query methods and iterates over the results returned. Being abstract, these other two query methods need to be implemented in the subclass:
abstract int[] getMidiFileTypes() abstract int[] getMidiFileTypes(Sequence sequence)
The first of these returns an array of all the file types that are supported in general. A typical implementation might initialize the array in the file writer's constructor and return the array from this method. From that set of file types, the second method finds the subset to which the file writer can write the given Sequence. In accordance with the MIDI specification, not all types of sequences can be written to all types of MIDI files.
The write
methods of a MidiFileWriter
subclass perform the encoding of the data in a given Sequence
into the correct data format for the requested type of MIDI file, writing the coded stream to either a file or an output stream:
abstract int write(Sequence in, int fileType, java.io.File out) abstract int write(Sequence in, int fileType, java.io.OutputStream out)
To do this, the write
method must parse the Sequence
by iterating over its tracks, construct an appropriate file header, and write the header and tracks to the output. The MIDI file's header format is, of course, defined by the MIDI specification. It includes such information as a "magic number" identifying this as a MIDI file, the header's length, the number of tracks, and the sequence's timing information (division type and resolution). The rest of the MIDI file consists of the track data, in the format defined by the MIDI specification.
Let's briefly look at how the application program, MIDI system, and service provider cooperate in writing a MIDI file. In a typical situation, an application program has a particular MIDI Sequence
to save to a file. The program queries the MidiSystem
object to see what MIDI file formats, if any, are supported for the particular Sequence
at hand, before attempting to write the file. The MidiSystem.getMidiFileTypes(Sequence)
method returns an array of all the MIDI file types to which the system can write a particular sequence. It does this by invoking the corresponding getMidiFileTypes
method for each of the installed MidiFileWriter
services, and collecting and returning the results in an array of integers that can be thought of as a master list of all file types compatible with the given Sequence
. When it comes to writing the Sequence
to a file, the call to MidiSystem.write
is passed an integer representing a file type, along with the Sequence
to be written and the output file; MidiSystem
uses the supplied type to decide which installed MidiFileWriter
should handle the write request, and dispatches a corresponding write
to the appropriate MidiFileWriter
The MidiFileReader
abstract class is directly analogous to javax.sampled.spi.AudioFileReader
class. Both consist of two overloaded methods, each of which can take a File
, or InputStream
argument. The first of the overloaded methods returns the file format of a specified file. In the case of MidiFileReader
, the API is:
abstract MidiFileFormat getMidiFileFormat(java.io.File file) abstract MidiFileFormat getMidiFileFormat( java.io.InputStream stream) abstract MidiFileFormat getMidiFileFormat(java.net.URL url)
Concrete subclasses must implement these methods to return a filled-out MidiFileFormat
object describing the format of the specified MIDI file (or stream or URL), assuming that the file is of a type supported by the file reader and that it contains valid header information. Otherwise, an InvalidMidiDataException
should be thrown.
The other overloaded method returns a MIDI Sequence
from a given file, stream, or URL :
abstract Sequence getSequence(java.io.File file) abstract Sequence getSequence(java.io.InputStream stream) abstract Sequence getSequence(java.net.URL url)
The getSequence
method performs the actual work of parsing the bytes in the MIDI input file and constructing a corresponding Sequence
object. This is essentially the inverse of the process used by MidiFileWriter.write
. Because there is a one-to-one correspondence between the contents of a MIDI file as defined by the MIDI specification and a Sequence
object as defined by the Java Sound API, the details of the parsing are straightforward. If the file passed to getSequence
contains data that the file reader can't parse (for example, because the file has been corrupted or doesn't conform to the MIDI specification), an InvalidMidiDataException
should be thrown.
A MidiDeviceProvider
can be considered a factory that supplies one or more particular types of MIDI device. The class consists of a method that returns an instance of a MIDI device, as well as query methods to learn what kinds of devices this provider can supply.
As with the other javax.sound.midi.spi
services, application developers get indirect access to a MidiDeviceProvider
service through a call to MidiSystem
methods, in this case MidiSystem.getMidiDevice
and MidiSystem.getMidiDeviceInfo
. The purpose of subclassing MidiDeviceProvider
is to supply a new kind of device, so the service developer must also create an accompanying class for the device being returned—just as we saw with MixerProvider
in the javax.sound.sampled.spi
package. There, the returned device's class implemented the javax.sound.sampled.Mixer
interface; here it implements the javax.sound.midi.MidiDevice
interface. It might also implement a subinterface of MidiDevice
, such as Synthesizer
or Sequencer
Because a single subclass of MidiDeviceProvider
can provide more than one type of MidiDevice
, the getDeviceInfo
method of the class returns an array of MidiDevice.Info
objects enumerating the different MidiDevices
abstract MidiDevice.Info[] getDeviceInfo()
The returned array can contain a single element, of course. A typical implementation of the provider might initialize an array in its constructor and return it here. This allows MidiSystem
to iterate over all installed MidiDeviceProviders
to construct a list of all installed devices. MidiSystem
can then return this list (MidiDevice.Info[]
array) to an application program.
also includes a concrete query method:
boolean isDeviceSupported(MidiDevice.Info info)
This method permits the system to query the provider about a specific kind of device. Generally, you don't need to override this convenience method. The default implementation iterates over the array returned by getDeviceInfo and compares the argument to each element.
The third and final MidiDeviceProvider
method returns the requested device:
abstract MidiDevice getDevice(MidiDevice.Info info)
This method should first test the argument to make sure it describes a device that this provider can supply. If it doesn't, it should throw an IllegalArgumentException
. Otherwise, it returns the device.
A SoundBank
is a set of Instruments
that can be loaded into a Synthesizer
. An Instrument
is an implementation of a sound-synthesis algorithm that produces a particular sort of sound, and includes accompanying name and information strings. A SoundBank
roughly corresponds to a bank in the MIDI specification, but it's a more extensive and addressable collection; it can perhaps better be thought of as a collection of MIDI banks.
consists of a single overloaded method, which the system invokes to read a Soundbank
object from a soundbank file:
abstract Soundbank getSoundbank(java.io.File file) abstract Soundbank getSoundbank(java.io.InputStream stream) abstract Soundbank getSoundbank(java.net.URL url)
Concrete subclasses of SoundbankReader
will work in tandem with particular provider-defined implementations of SoundBank
, Instrument
, and Synthesizer
to allow the system to load a SoundBank
from a file into an instance of a particular Synthesizer
class. Synthesis techniques may differ wildly from one Synthesizer
to another, and, as a consequence, the data stored in an Instrument
or SoundBank
providing control or specification data for the synthesis process of a Synthesizer
can take a variety of forms. One synthesis technique may require only a few bytes of parameter data; another may be based on extensive sound samples. The resources present in a SoundBank
will depend upon the nature of the Synthesizer
into which they get loaded, and therefore the implementation of the getSoundbank
method of a SoundbankReader
subclass has access to knowledge of a particular kind of SoundBank
. In addition, a particular subclass of SoundbankReader
understands a particular file format for storing the SoundBank
data. That file format may be vendor-specific and proprietary.
is just an interface, with only weak constraints on the contents of a SoundBank
object. The methods an object must support to implement this interface (getResources
, getInstruments
, getVendor
, getName
, etc.) impose loose requirements on the data that the object contains. For example, getResources
and getInstruments
can return empty arrays. The actual contents of a subclassed SoundBank
object, in particular its instruments and its non-instrument resources, are defined by the service provider. Thus, the mechanism of parsing a soundbank file depends entirely on the specification of that particular kind of soundbank file.
Soundbank files are created outside the Java Sound API, typically by the vendor of the synthesizer that can load that kind of soundbank. Some vendors might supply end-user tools for creating such files.


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The Manufacturing Institute recently honored Denise Stanislawczyk, Operations Manager of ABB's Measurement Products, with the Women in Manufacturing STEP Award. In this interview, Denise discusses women's place in the field, current challenges in the industry, and how those challenges might be overcome.
Barnes: Can you tell us about the STEP awards? Why is it important to acknowledge women in the industry?
Stanislawczyk: The Manufacturing Institute, an affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers, launched the STEP Ahead Initiative in 2012 to recognize women in the manufacturing industry. It's important to acknowledge women in manufacturing since we are the minority. According to one of the articles on Manufacturing Institute's website, there are 46.6% women in the workforce, but only 24.8% in the manufacturing industry.
Barnes: Tell us about the kind of work you do and its significance towards moving the industry forward.
Stanislawczyk: Being the Operations Manager at ABB in Warminster, PA, I'm responsible for quality products being produced by our greatest asset, our employees. We are always driving positive change to improve how we deliver to our customers. We need to be innovative, dedicated to excellence, and profitable to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
Barnes: What are the particular advancements you have been a part of?
Stanislawczyk: The manufacturing industry is constantly changing and we need to stay competitive. Since I've been responsible for the manufacturing operation, we have consistently improved on-time delivery from 70% to 97%. We have also reduced lead times to stay competitive. Our Operational Excellence team is always improving the processes on the shop floor and developing lean production lines for new products. This could not have happened without the great teamwork from all manufacturing personnel.
Barnes: What are some projects of note you are currently involved in?
Stanislawczyk: We began with increasing our on-time delivery. Then we worked on reducing lead times by improving processes. We continued to take time out of the processes by reviewing FPY (First Pass Yield) and now we are working on FRY (First Run Yield). If there is a quality issue within any of the manufacturing processes, we immediately evaluate the issue so it does not happen again.
Barnes: What are the current challenges the industry faces and how might they be overcome?
Stanislawczyk: The economic environment for the manufacturing industry is a current concern. Managing the appropriate staff for a fluctuating business volume can be challenging. Since we produce 10 different products with literally thousands of variations, we need to cross-train each person in at least three different processes. Our highly skilled and flexible workforce enables us to react quickly to our customers' orders and constant changes in our industry.
Barnes: Do you feel that women in particular face challenges in the industry?
Stanislawczyk: Everyone is facing challenges in this economy. You need to be passionate about the manufacturing industry to be successful. There are more men in manufacturing and we want to provide more opportunities for women. With ABB's commitment to diversity, they have launched a Women's Mentoring program in 2013 to develop women leaders. It provides growth opportunities for women who want to grow and build their careers. Programs like these help address some of the specific industry concerns. Being in manufacturing is always about meeting challenges and finding innovative solutions.


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Policy Specifics
- The policy will restrict the use of all forms of tobacco products including, but not limited to, cigarettes, pipes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and snuff, as well as smokeless electronic cigarettes and other similar devices.
- It allows the use of tobacco products in private vehicles on campus.
- The policy went into effect July 1, 2011, but implementation is delayed until Jan. 1, 2012, to allow a transition period and to provide support to those wishing to cease tobacco usage.
- Tennessee law already prohibits smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state, which includes any University-owned or leased facilities, vehicles, and athletic venues.
- Previous policy previously allowed smoking 20 feet away from doorways, windows, ventilation systems, walkways, and gates.
Why is MTSU Tobacco-Free?
- We at MTSU are not alone in making such a move. More than 400 colleges and universities across the nation are completely smoke-free on campus.
- Across the state, universities like Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech, and East Tennessee State have enacted similar policies.
- We feel this policy is not about denying rights; it's about promoting and creating a healthy environment for all.
- We are not focusing on tobacco users as much as we are focusing on a behavior in public spaces we all share. Individuals can still use tobacco in their cars and at off-campus locations.
- Student Health Services has reported treating students with asthma and other respiratory illnesses whose conditions are triggered by outdoor exposure to second-hand smoke.


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For the first time ever, StyleWeek Providence is opening its doors to the public offering tickets to shows and events August 26-September 3rd (click here for a full schedule). But it all kicks off with one powerful event this Friday evening: The Go Red StyleWeek Challenge benefiting American Heart Association, which raises awareness and funds for the fight against heart disease in women.
The theme of this season's challenge is "Little Hearts. Big Love." The runway show features female survivors between the ages of 8 and 13 outfitted in original ensembles custom created by StyleWeek and inspired by the survivors personalities. "It's been wonderful for our team and all the designers to work with the adult and young survivors," says Rosanna Ortiz Sinel, founder and president of StyleWeek. "This experience has moved and changed all of us."
"Little Hearts. Big Love.," will take place at the Providence Performing Arts Center on Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m. Tickets range from $40-$150 and can be purchased by clicking here. For more information on this event and the entire StyleWeek schedule, visit StyleWeekProvidence.com or "like" the StyleWeek page on Facebook.
Pictured above, designer Jonathan Joseph Peters at this winter's sold out Go Red StyleWeek Challenge. Photo by Anibal Melo Photography, www.anibalmelophoto.com


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Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and collection systems emit and generate considerable amounts of air emissions and offensive odours. Several chemical compounds can be emitted and cause odour in collection systems, headworks and WWTPs such as sulphur-based compounds (e.g. H2S) and nitrogen-based compounds (e.g. N2O). The main role of sewer systems is to collect and convey wastewater to treatment facilities. Sulphide build-up is one of the major problems occurring in wastewater systems. The consequences of the undesirable septic conditions include toxicity, corrosion and odour nuisance. Corrosion is often a major failure mechanism for concrete sewers and under such circumstances the sewer service life is largely determined by the progression of microbially induced concrete corrosion. Therefore, predicting corrosion in sewer systems is a vital element in planning sewer pipes, shafts as well as rehabilitation programs.
Although some empirical models have demonstrated satisfying results for simulating/predicting odour/corrosion, however there are areas in which they are not robust. For example, they lack the ability to predict short term variations in sulphide concentrations. Another common problem with all these models is that only few factors among many others affecting H2S production are considered resulting in highly case specific parameter values. Such problems have created room for further research and development in the subject of odour and corrosion management in sewers. The use of data-driven techniques and in particular those based on artificial intelligence (AI) in modelling of engineering phenomena have drawn much attention from the scientific and research community in the past few decades.
Recent studies have suggested that proper predictions of environmental parameters could be obtained via artificial intelligence based models such as ANNs (Pires et al., 2010; Moazami et al., 2016; Biancofiore et al., 2017; Zounemat-Kermani et al., 2018; Dotse et al., 2018). Despite the proper and positive premises, the real effectiveness of AI-based models have been verified only on a few case studies, and the performance of the time dependent ANNs (e.g. NARX) for modelling emission factors has never been assessed. Hence, a comprehensive assessment of the capability and effectiveness of AI models in simulating emission factors of wastewater facilities is beneficial for filling the gap in this unexplored area of research. This task is carried out in this study, where the prediction of emission factor (H2S) using multivariate nonlinear autoregressive exogenous ANN and regression methods is accomplished. In other words, the aim of this research is to evaluate the feasibility of using emission factors as a tool to predict H2S emissions from four different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Louisiana, USA.
Inspired by the animal neural systems, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are parallel distributed processors which are made up of simple processing units called neurons. ANNs are categorized as machine learning models which exhibit good learning and generalization capabilities for a variety classification, prediction and simulating purposes. Due to the nature of the modelling phenomenon, different categories of ANNs can be utilised such as multi-layer perceptron neural network (Cigizoglu, 2004), generalized regression neural network (Zounemat-Kermani, 2014) and deep learning neural network (Schmidhuber, 2015).
One of the ANN categories that can be considered for modelling time dependent problems is recurrent neural networks. In recurrent neural networks the temporal dynamic behaviour for a time sequence can be exhibited and captured by the network structure during the training process. Nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) neural networks are types of dynamically-driven recurrent ANNs. NARXs have one or several local/global feedback loop in which the same structure can be made up for different recurrent models. In other words, in NARXs the summary information of exogenous variables is included which leads to fewer number of residuals. Thus NARXs have a reasonable computation cost in comparison to the classical feed-forward ANNs (Cadenas et al., 2016).
Figure 1 depicts the optimum and the final architecture of one of the four developed NARX models in this study with eight input variables, nine hidden neurons and 1 output variable (the East Bank WWPT). As could be seen from the architecture of the developed NARX model in Figure 1, the model used five input multivariate independent variables (Q, T, pH, BOD and TS) at time (t) with three delays of emission factor at times (t, t-1, t-2). Detailed information about the input selection procedure (F in Equation 1) and proper delay time (n in Equation 1) using the principal component analysis and average mutual function is presented in the following sections.
Figures 2 shows the comparison of observed versus simulated (the training phase) and predicted values (the testing phase) of all applied models for the four WWTPs. From Figure 6 it can be observed that the values of the weekly gaseous H2S obtained from the NARX models are generally simulated (the training phase) and predicted (the testing phase) closer to the observed value than the other models.
Figure 3 displays the results of NARX models for simulated and predicted EF-Flow against the observed values in forms of scatter plots for the training and testing datasets. As can be observed from the scatterplot the simulated and predicted values of NARX models follow the observed values in both training and testing phases. In addition, the simulated and predicted values of the four WWTPs exhibit a reluctant tendency for an absolute over/under estimation of the gaseous H2S.
Biancofiore, F., Busilacchio, M., Verdecchia, M., Tomassetti, B., Aruffo, E., Bianco, S., ... & Di Carlo, P. (2017). Recursive neural network model for analysis and forecast of PM10 and PM2. 5. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 8(4), 652-659.
Cadenas, E., Rivera, W., Campos-Amezcua, R., & Cadenas, R. (2016). Wind speed forecasting using the NARX model, case: La Mata, Oaxaca, México. Neural Computing and Applications, 27(8), 2417-2428.
Cigizoglu, H. K. (2004). Estimation and forecasting of daily suspended sediment data by multi-layer perceptrons. Advances in Water Resources, 27(2), 185-195.
Dotse, S. Q., Petra, M. I., Dagar, L., & De Silva, L. C. (2018). Application of computational intelligence techniques to forecast daily PM10 exceedances in Brunei Darussalam. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 9(2), 358-368.
Moazami, S., Noori, R., Amiri, B. J., Yeganeh, B., Partani, S., & Safavi, S. (2016). Reliable prediction of carbon monoxide using developed support vector machine. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 7(3), 412-418.
Pires, J. C., Alvim–Ferraz, M. C., Pereira, M. C., & Martins, F. G. (2010). Prediction of PM10 concentrations through multi–gene genetic programming. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 1(4), 305-310.
Schmidhuber, J. (2015). Deep learning in neural networks: An overview. Neural networks, 61, 85-117.
Zounemat-Kermani, M. (2014). Principal component analysis (PCA) for estimating chlorophyll concentration using forward and generalized regression neural networks. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 28(1), 16-29.
Zounemat-Kermani, M., Ramezani-Charmahineh, A., Adamowski, J., & Kisi, O. (2018). Investigating the management performance of disinfection analysis of water distribution networks using data mining approaches. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 190(7), 397.
Associate Prof. Mohammad Zounemat-Kermani
The scope of this research was to understand the feasibility of developing soft computing models for gaseous H2S emissions as an emission factor from four WWTPs. In this respect, multivariate nonlinear autoregressive exogenous neural networks (NARX ANNs) as a soft computing model as well as standard regressive models (multiple linear regression model, MLR; stepwise regression, SR; & two-variate logarithmic regression model, TVLR) were constructed and developed for predicting emission factor (gaseous H2S).
Based on several statistical measures (RMSE, MAPE, PCC, NSE & GRI) accounting for models accuracy, it was found that the NARX models could predict the emitted H2S with better accuracy (average RMSE=15.3 mg/m3 and MAPE=55.7%), similarity (average PCC=0.91 and, NSE=0.92) and reliability (GRI=1.65). Among the standard regression models (MLR, SR and TVLR), the performance of MLR models in the training and testing phases indicates an acceptable degree of accuracy (average NSE=0.85 and MAPE=185.9%). Investigating the various input combinations using correlation coefficient values and PCA analysis, demonstrated that the ambient temperature and average daily flow have the maximum effect on the H2S prediction accuracy, whereas, the pH input variable was recognized as the least important independent factor on gaseous H2S emission.


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Google has always had a pretty lax set of rules when it comes to the apps on Google Play, but today, they've started removing a number of popular ad blockers from the store.
We've talked about how to block ads in Android before, but that just got slightly more difficult. Popular ad blockers including AdAway, Adfree, and AdBlock Plus, are all gone from the Play Store, with Google citing the following section of their developer agreement:
4.4 Prohibited Actions. You agree that you will not engage in any activity with the Market, including the development or distribution of Products, that interferes with, disrupts, damages, or accesses in an unauthorized manner the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator. You may not use customer information obtained from the Market to sell or distribute Products outside of the Market.
Of course, you can always download these apps from other sources and sideload them (we imagine they'll be up on sites like XDA Developers very soon), and AdAway has already put their app up for download on F-Droid. Still, this is a pretty bold move on Google's part, and means that ad blockers will have to do a little more work to get their fix. Of course, for apps that don't require the internet, you can always block those ads with airplane mode, too.
Breaking: Google Has Begun Purging Ad-Blocking Apps From The Play Store | Android Police


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Friday, July 11, 2003
Experimental Kahlo
Mark M. Hancock / © The Dallas Morning News
Maryam Baig, (from right to left) Alana Macias, Julian Guevara, Edward Cisneros and Justin Brumit pose for a portrait at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas on Friday, July 11, 2003. They perform in "To DIE:GO In Leaves." The play is an experimental drama based on the life and writings of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Dallas County,
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Phil Tossell of Nyamyam feels the British studio lost a lot of its spark
Nyamyam studio co-founder Phil Tossell has seen the peak of Rare's golden age as well as its devolution into just another cog in the Microsoft machine. He joined Rare to work on Diddy Kong Racing, became lead programmer on Star Fox Adventures, moved onto Kameo: Elements of Power, then left the company after serving as the gameplay director on Kinect Sports.
Today, he and two other former Rare staffers, Jennifer Schneidereit and Ryo Agarie, are hard at work on Tengami, a pop-up book adventure scheduled for Wii U, PC, Mac, and iPad. While speaking to Nintendo Enthusiast about this new venture, Tossell recounted how the Rare atmosphere started to change following the acquisition by Microsoft.
"Rare was also a close knit family and so it was something of a shock to suddenly become part of such a huge organisation as Microsoft," Tossell recalled. "There was a severe culture clash which perhaps didn't become apparent at first as Microsoft mostly allowed us to continue as we had always done. However as time passed and there were staff changes at MGS, together with Tim and Chris (Stamper) leaving, the culture changed and it began to feel more Microsoft and less Rare. While Rare continues to put out high quality games, for me it lost some of the spark that had made the company special."
To say that Rare fans quickly caught on to Microsoft's growing influence is an understatement. It was as clear as day to anyone who's ever picked up a controller. I remember three years ago when the fan site MundoRare closed down following a failed attempt to film a Rare documentary. The explanation from Rare for putting a stop to the project was that it wouldn't be "on message." Rare caught a lot of heat for that move, but it seems pretty obvious now that it was likely Microsoft HQ's self interests that resulted in that door slamming shut.
Can you even call the shell of the studio that handed off development of the long-anticipated revival of its own Killer Instinct franchise "Rare" anymore? All the biggest names have high-tailed it out of there — the Stamper brothers, David Wise, Chris Seavor, Grant Kirkhope, Chris Marlow, and so on. Who's still around to keep the old familial spirit alive?
"I think at the moment the company is going through something of a rebirth as there are lots of new people and most of the old staff have left, so I'm excited to see what they do next," continued Tossell. "Whatever Rare does it will always hold a special place for me." I wouldn't be surprised if a single tear rolled down his cheek as he spoke that.
Microsoft must have thought that by buying out Rare, which was a Nintendo studio through and through, the Xbox brand would suddenly out-Nintendo Nintendo. Did anyone really think it could be that easy? Just flash some green and snap your fingers and ta-da?
Actually, according this story from Chris Seavor, in which one of Microsoft's suit honestly thought owning Rare also gave them ownership of Donkey Kong, I wouldn't doubt that's precisely what they thought would happen.
Interview: Nyamyam – Wii U "Has Huge Potential", "Will Be Using Dev Kits Again in the Future" [Nintendo Enthusiast via NowGamer]


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GCI's sister publication Perfumer & Flavorist magazine partnered with The Fragrance Foundation to restructure the FiFi Awards for Technological Breakthrough of the Year. As a result, a specialized category—Technological Breakthrough in Fragrance Creation—was established.
This new award category considered submissions in the following areas:
- Innovations in production or formulation
- Methods of ingredient extraction
- New ingredients
- Fragrance applications
- Sustainability efforts as they relate to ingredients, formulation and finished fragrance
- Basic research (fragrance-centric)
Submitted technologies represented an entirely new and original concept. In addition, the technologies must have been created in 2009 and used in a product that is currently on the market, or, if it is not currently on the market, a notarized letter must be submitted confirming a contract to use the technology in a product to be launched in 2010.
A panel of experts pre-screened submissions, evaluating concept (original premise), function (how does it work and what are its innovative qualities) and industry benefits (potential value). Following this stage, entrants were required to make a presentation to the Technological Breakthrough judging panel, comprising industry consultants, trade media and research scientists. The highest-scoring presentation will be awarded the FiFi Award for Technological Breakthrough of the Year at the 2010 FiFi Award Ceremony on Thursday, June 10, 2010, at The Downtown Avenue Armory in New York.
The Nominees
This revamped award category presented an opportunity for fragrance houses, raw material suppliers and research institutions to showcase their expertise.
Miriad 2.0 by Givaudan
Givaudan's submission seeks to capitalize on emerging opportunities of the 21st century, namely developing markets; a vast and democratic Internet environment in which consumers openly exchange insights; and increasingly sophisticated tools for gathering; analyzing and acting upon data in real time. Labeled a "knowledge management tool," Miriad 2.0 represents an expansion of the company's interactive program, which supports fragrance creation for fine fragrance, personal, fabric and home care applications.
The expansion focuses on three general areas:
- BlogTrek "tracks the buzz and sentiments [about fine fragrance] that are exchanged between early adaptors and passionate perfume users daily." The technology collates popular opinion by "harvesting comments" for application in increasingly predictive marketing applications.
- As part of its effort to gather localized data around the world, Givaudan's expanded platform has widened its focus on increasingly important developing markets. Using its Anthropoligist's Nose system, the company is examining how local tastes and customs affect fragrance performance and overall fragrance relevance, with the goal of inspiring new, well-targeted products. According to the company, "teams ensure on-the-ground connection with local markets [by] capturing opinions, experiences and associations with fragrance and observing consumer behavior when buying and using products." This information is fed into Givaudan's databases for application in fragrance design. In addition, its Scent Tracking Across Regions (Web STAR) Web platform employs proprietary metrics to identify global category leaders and olfactive preferences worldwide. The technology uses 10 "visualization techniques"—Motion Analytics—to analyze data that will be used to steer fragrance creation.
- Givaudan has grown its platform's mission to encompass conceptual positioning, proactive initiatives and new raw material testing with consumers. Perfume Pulse represents a database of consumer feedback on fragrance materials collected over 15 years, helping formulators to rethink how consumers around the world use and understand olfactive terminology. Also, the technology includes Perfume Pub, which tracks consumer feedback on brand advertising, including in developing markets. The technology allows formulators to draw conclusions on the "impact of economic environment on overall preference."
Jungle Essence by Mane
Mane's Jungle Essence technology employs an in situ device featuring a liquefied, odorless, recyclable gas extraction that "fully analyzes" source materials, allowing formulators to create new fragrances with the "total olfactive fidelity" of the original product. The process aims to discover new olfactive facets for all applications categories. This small, portable technology requires no external energy source and can trap the scent and taste of items as diverse as fruit and candy.
How the extraction works: Source material is cut into pieces before being placed in the technology's extraction tube, which enhances contact with the proprietary extraction gas. In a cold, low-pressure process, the gas liquefies, penetrates the source material and extracts odorant molecules. Pressure is released as the tube is emptied; the liquid gas evaporates, returning to its original state. Left behind is the molecular extraction, which is then analyzed by a perfumer in order to generate a formula that can be scaled up.
Extracts: The Jungle Essence technology can generate three categories of products. Pure Jungle Essence is an Ecocert-certifiable natural extraction of a natural product, sans solvent residue; Neo Jungle Essence is a co-extraction with an added solvent that produces extracts without "olfactive distortion," thus offering "olfactive fidelity;" DNA Jungle Essence represents a reconstitution based on an analysis of a Pure Jungle Essence extraction. The "code" of the extract is broken down and reconstituted as accurately as possible and can be compared against the olfactive reference of the pure extract. The technology has yielded materials such as pink pepper Pure JE (sharp, spicy, softly woody), coconut Neo JE (fresh and fruity), feuilles de bigaradier DNA JE (floral, characteristic orange flow and light citrus) and green pepper Neo JE (fresh, green, spicy, crunchy and hot).
Aromacosmetics by Robertet
Robertet's Aromacosmetics R&D program has utilized technologies such as a cell culture lab to examine more than 300 natural perfumery ingredients—essential oils, absolutes, resinoids, isolates, etc.—for application in skin care. The resulting extracts contain active molecules that serve as skin-activity ingredients in soothing, antiaging, purifying and slimming applications.
Activities: The program's soothing solutions target skin inflammation by inhibiting the activity of the enzymes that induce and amplify the inflammatory process. Extracts such as wheat and myrrh extract have been applied in products such as Optimum Rejuvenate & Restore Day Cream, Innoxa Spa Body Therapy hydrating body mist and Avon Justine Skin Care: Balancing Line. Meanwhile, the company's anti-photoaging materials, such as olive fruit extract, act as antioxidants, reducing damage caused by free radicals. Materials such as benzoin and rosemary extracts prevent the loosening of the extracellular matrix by protecting structural proteins and reducing wrinkles.
Materials such as juniper berry extract prevent dehydration by strengthening the extracellular matrix and protecting hyaluronic acid. Robertet's antiaging technology is used in Lolita Morena—Le Baiser de la Rose skin care, Institut Esthederm—Time System antiaging skin care and Optimum skin care line. Aromacosmetics can also purify the skin and scalp by inhibiting the production of microorganisms. In this category, guaiacwood extract can treat acne; Virginia cedarwood extract can treat perspiration; coriander extract can treat dandruff. This technology is used in Decleor—Aroma Purete purifying skin care range. Finally, Robertet's slimming Aromacosmetics reactivate the lipolysis process and improve skin firmness by using thyme extracts. Applications include Dior Bikini Celluli-Diet slimming gel and Innoxa—One and All body care.
Originally printed in the May 2010 issue of P&F.


text:
It's a few days before the season 3 premiere of Canadian satirical news series "The Beaverton," and co-hosts Emma Hunter and Miguel Rivas are mulling over which headlines to cover.
"Just hilarious stuff like children in cages and the Epstein case," Rivas jests in a phone interview, referring to stories about migrant children at U.S. border facilities and sex trafficking accusations against financier Jeffrey Epstein.
"Our message overall is usually that almost anything is on the table, as long as we can have a take that doesn't come across as unkind or punching down," adds Hunter.
"We always want to make sure that we're punching up."
Season 3, launching Tuesday, is a big one for "The Beaverton."
Not only is the Toronto-based weekly series moving over to CTV from The Comedy Network — in a plum 10 p.m. ET/PT time-slot after the hit series "The Amazing Race Canada," no less — it's also airing simultaneously around the world for international audiences on CTV's YouTube channel for the first time.
The Canadian Screen Award-nominated show also has a quicker turnaround this season, shooting in front of a live studio audience the night before it airs, giving the feel of a more current and high-paced news environment.
"We absolutely deserve a seat at the table with all the late-night talk shows in the U.S.," says Hunter, an actress and comedian whose other credits include "Mr. D" and "Royal Canadian Air Farce."
"Canada hasn't had one in a long time and we think we absolutely deserve to have an international take on the international things unfolding. So we're ready, baby."
Yes, that means "The Beaverton" will not only be covering Canadian news but also global stories.
The co-hosts note there's already an appetite for the brand outside of North America through TheBeaverton.com satirical news site, which inspired the TV series and seems to have "grown enormously" in popularity, says Rivas.
READ MORE: 'Schitt's Creek' and its stars among Canadian Emmy nominees
In an era of outrageous headlines and accusations of so-called "fake news," it seems the deliberately fake news is thriving.
"Whenever there's a wildly unpopular government, I'm referencing Donald Trump's in the States, I won't quote any real study but I think you could find that civic engagement tends to go way up," says Rivas, who is also an actor and comedian, with credits including "Baroness von Sketch Show" and "Gary and His Demons."
"I don't think people gave a crap about, for instance, a lot of municipal Toronto politics, but then once Rob Ford was elected and started doing his thing, everybody started to be like, 'Wait a minute, I suddenly care about my ward so much,'" Rivas continues.
"So I think the difficult political climate in the Western world, and specifically in North America, has caused Canadians to pay a lot more attention and care a lot more and get excited and outraged more. And they need something to reflect that and talk about that with and make jokes about stuff — and then enter us. It's such an amazing opportunity, that people have the appetite for this like they never had before."
This season will have eight episodes and return for a separate Canadian federal election special on Oct. 18.
Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press


text:
This morning FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the winners of the agency's latest contest on Challenge.gov, a competition for scientists and software developers to engage in innovative research and create useful apps that further the understanding of Internet connectivity and network science. A video of the Chairman's remarks and the award presentation are available.
The three winning teams were recognized at a ceremony with remarks by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski at FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C. The winning teams also presented their apps and research to the Commission.
The three winning teams are University of Michigan & Microsoft Research; School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology; and The ICSI (International Computer Science Institute) Netalyzr Project. Descriptions of the winning entries are detailed below.
The Open Internet Challenge sought to encourage the development of innovative and functional applications that provide users with information about the extent to which their fixed or mobile broadband Internet services are consistent with the open Internet. The research component of the challenge sought academic papers that analyze relevant Internet openness measurements, techniques, and data. The challenge was designed to encourage and reward the creation innovative and useful research.
The challenge is posted on Challenge.gov, a new website and digital platform where entrepreneurs, innovators, and citizen solvers can compete for prizes by providing novel solutions to problems large and small. Details of the challenge are posted. You also can view other FCC challenges.
Thank you to our judges:
Mark Allman, Senior Research Scientist, ICSI
Mark Crovella, Professor of Computer Science, Boston University
Peter Eckersley, Senior Staff Technologist, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Jim Kurose, Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science, UMass Amherst
Craig Labovitz, Chief Scientist, Arbor Networks
Jason Livingood, Executive Director, Internet Systems Engineering, Comcast
Venkat Padmanabhan, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research India
Dina Papagiannaki, Senior Research Scientist, Intel Labs Pittsburgh
Craig Partridge, Chief Scientist, Raytheon BBN Technologies
K. K. Ramakrishnan, Fellow, AT&T Labs-Research
And congratulations to our winners:
Open Internet App Award Winner
People's Choice App Award Winner
University of Michigan & Microsoft Research
MobiPerf is a lightweight and accurate mobile network measurement tool designed to collect anonymous network measurement information directly from mobile end users. It runs on Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile devices and completes within 2-3 minutes. Users are able to obtain a rich set of basic network information (e.g., the device's IP address as seen by the server and the network type such as HSDPA), network performance information (e.g., downlink/uplink throughput), as well as a set of more advanced network properties including network policies (e.g., cellular ISPs' port blocking and NAT policies).? MobiPerf helps identify the bottleneck network behavior for resource constrained mobile platforms as well as expose both the performance and energy impact of mobile network policies on end users.
Open Internet Research Award
School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology
The research proposes methods that enable Internet users to detect two aspects of openness. First, an active probing method called "Differential Probing" or DiffProbe, to detect whether an access ISP is deploying delay or loss discrimination against some of its customer flows. The basic idea behind DiffProbe is to compare the delays and packet losses experienced by two flows: an application flow of interest and a probing flow. The paper describes the statistical methods that DiffProbe uses, a novel method to identify scheduling, evaluation experiments, and a few real-world tests at major access ISPs. Second, the work presents methods for active and passive detection of traffic shaping in ISPs. The active tool, ShaperProbe, enables users to detect whether their ISP is shaping traffic, and to estimate the extent of shaping. ShaperProbe is hosted as a free, open source, service on M-Lab. The paper presents traffic shaping data from users of the tool since 2009 (from about one million runs), and showcases studies of four large ISPs. The passive tool detects and estimates application-specific traffic shaping by looking at an ongoing TCP connection on the user's machine.
The ICSI (International Computer Science Institute) Netalyzr Project
This paper presents Netalyzr, a network measurement and debugging service that evaluates the functionality provided by people's Internet connectivity. The design aims to prove both comprehensive in terms of the properties it measures and easy to employ and understand for users with little technical background. Netalyzr is structured as a signed Java applet (which users access via their Web browser) that communicates with a suite of measurement-specific servers. Traffic between the two then probes for a diverse set of network properties, including outbound port filtering, hidden in-network HTTP caches, DNS manipulations, NAT behavior, path MTU issues, IPv6 support, and access-modem buffer capacity. In addition to reporting results to the user, Netalyzr also forms the foundation for an extensive measurement of edge-network properties. To this end, along with describing Netalyzr's architecture and system implementation, it presents a detailed study of 130,000 measurement sessions that the service has recorded between June 2009 and September 2010.
University of Michigan & Microsoft Research team
Z. Morley Mao
Feng Qian
Paramvir Bahl
Cheng Chen
Junxian Huang
Yutong Pei
Zhiyun Qian
Birjodh Tiwana
Zhaoguang Wang
Qiang Xu
Ming Zhang
The ICSI Netalyzr Project team
Nicholas Weaver
Christian Kreibich
Boris Nechaev
Vern Paxson
Georgia Institute of Technology team
Partha Kanuparthy
Constantine Dovrolis


text:
I would like to find others who also have ptsd that is not military-related (although, I know some of mine is connected to my father's illness - eh - call it as it is - his injuries from war and all the time I spent in Military facilities/hospitals seeing so many vets from various wars of different ages. I was an unofficial 'candystripper' of sorts. I loved talking with them, but, in retrospect, I know it was all good at the time, I just did not do something to separate me from all that, and I still carry so much.) Those wounds drove through him for years after 'surgically healed' and all that and through us, his family.
I have other ptsd issues, yay me - but, well, it's a multi-spectrum kind of thing.


text: Colonial America through the Revolutionary Era surveys the political, social, economic, cultural and ideological characteristics of the 17th and 18th centuries, beginning with the earliest settlements through the establishment of the early American republic. Students are introduced to the techniques and strategies of historians through the use of historical texts, both primary and secondary, as well as the procedures of historical writing. Attention is given to multiple American cultures and their prevalent values and institutions; the explanations for change in such values and institutions; and relationships within the American colonies and the early United States both among the cultural groups comprising the national population as well as with those of Europe and Africa.


text:
Students will find a broad liberal arts-based curriculum at NYU London. The curriculum draws on the city's history and vibrant culture in addition to specialized academic programs for students in particular majors. Field work and site visits are a regular part of many classes that take students out of the classroom and into the cosmopolitan center of London. A wide array of courses are available in various disciplines, including science, business, fine arts, theatre, history, politics, Africana studies, economics, journalism, math, psychology, and literature.
Featured Programs
The Art and Architecture of London
Choose from a wide variety of Art History and Urban Design courses ranging from how to view and sketch buildings through the eyes of an architect, to examining the social significance of Georgian portraiture.
Stay on track for medical school with science and math courses acceptable to all AAMCAS medical schools in the United States. Organic Chemistry, Biology, and Physics courses at NYU London are designed to match the NYU's home departments lecture for lecture and lab for lab.


text:
New Jersey – Amendment to Accountability Plan – NCLB Policy Letters to States
July 16, 2008
The Honorable Lucille E. Davy
New Jersey Department of Education
100 River View Plaza
P.O. Box 500
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0500
Dear Commissioner Davy:
I am writing in response to New Jersey's request to amend its State accountability plan under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Following our discussions with your staff, the approved changes are now included in an amended state accountability plan that New Jersey submitted to the Department on July 10, 2008. I am pleased to fully approve New Jersey's amended plan, which we will post on the Department's website. A summary of the amendments submitted for the 2007-08 school year is enclosed with this letter. As you know, any further requests to amend the New Jersey accountability plan must be submitted to the Department for review and approval as required by section 1111(f)(2) of Title I of the ESEA.
Please also be aware that approval of New Jersey's accountability plan for Title I, including the amendments approved herein, does not indicate that the plan complies with Federal civil rights requirements, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
I am confident that New Jersey will continue to advance its efforts to hold schools and school districts accountable for the achievement of all students. If you need any additional assistance to implement the standards, assessment, and accountability provisions of NCLB, please do not hesitate to contact Jessica Morffi (firstname.lastname@example.com) or Sharon Hall (firstname.lastname@example.com) of my staff.
Kerri L. Briggs, Ph.D.
cc: Governor Jon Corzine
Suzanne Osche
Amendments to New Jersey's Accountability Plan
The following is a summary of the state's amendment requests. Please refer to the Department's website (www.ed.govhttps://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/stateplans03/index.html) for New Jersey's complete accountability plan.
Acceptable amendments
The following amendments are aligned with the statute and regulations:
Timeline for adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations and resetting annual measurable objectives (AMOs) (Element 3.2b)
Revision: New Jersey will conduct standards setting for its new assessments in 2007-08 in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 for reading/language arts and mathematics in August 2008, with preliminary AYP results to be available by October 31, 2008. Therefore, at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year, all schools and districts will have the same AYP status as during the 2007-08 school year. All schools and districts that cannot exit improvement status will implement the appropriate interventions prior to the start of the school year consistent with section 1116 of ESEA. If these schools and districts do not make AYP based upon the 2007-08 assessment data, they will begin offering the next level of services based on preliminary AYP results. Schools and districts on the "watch list" (i.e., schools and districts that did not make AYP for the first time based upon 2006-07 assessment data) must be notified to plan for the possibility of offering services (i.e., public school choice) and must act immediately on the preliminary building assessment reports. Schools and districts previously identified as in need of improvement that make AYP for the first time will continue to offer the same level of services as in 2007-08. Schools and districts that were previously identified as in need of improvement that made AYP in 2006-07 but do not make AYP in 2007-08 must offer the next level of services based on preliminary AYP results. Schools and districts previously identified as in need of improvement that make AYP for the second consecutive year based upon 2007-08 assessment data will no longer be identified for improvement and no action is required.
In addition, because New Jersey has new assessments in some grades, the state will reset its starting points, intermediate goals and AMOs. New Jersey must submit the new AMOs for review and approval by the Department before they may be used in AYP determinations. The proposed AMOs must increase in equal increments and each increase must occur in not more than three years as described in section 1111(b)(2)(H) of the ESEA.
Minimum group size (Element 5.5)
Revision: New Jersey will use a uniform minimum group size of 30 students for all student groups when calculating proficiency rates. As proposed in the April 2008 notice of proposed rulemaking, the Department intends to use the National Technical Advisory Council, recently established by Secretary Spellings, to review all states' minimum group sizes and provide guidance to the Department in order to ensure valid and reliable accountability systems that, to the maximum extent possible, include all students.
New school (Element 9.3)
Revision: New Jersey has established the following criteria to recognize a restructured school as new: 1) the restructured school must now serve grade levels that are at least 50 percent different than the grade levels the school previously served; and 2) the school's staff must include 50 percent more new staff members.
Participation rates (Element 10.1)
Revision: New Jersey will average participation rates up to three years if the current year's participation rate is less than 95 percent.


text:
JOHANNESBURG – The police investigation into Oscar Pistorius' killing of his girlfriend on Valentine's Day won't be completed until August, prosecutors said Saturday, ahead of the double-amputee Olympian's first court appearance in nearly four months.
The National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement that it was "content with the progress thus far" of the investigation, which will have taken nearly six months by the time the state is ready to proceed with Pistorius' murder trial.
Pistorius will return to Courtroom C at Pretoria Magistrate's Court on June 4. He is expected to appear for only 10 minutes, but will give the world its first view of him since bail was granted on Feb. 22 in a hearing that lasted nearly a week and during which he cut a broken, sobbing figure as details of the shooting were aired.
The NPA expects the June 4 proceedings to be "a mere postponement" ahead of another date in August. Meanwhile, police investigators continue to collect and scrutinize evidence and identify and interview possible witnesses to Pistorius' shooting of Reeva Steenkamp at his upscale home in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14.
Since Pistorius left public view, whisked away from the court building in the back seat of an SUV with darkened windows, his defense team has successfully appealed some of his bail restrictions. He has been living at the house of his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, in an upmarket Pretoria suburb that is not far from the gated community in which he fired the shots through a toilet door that killed Steenkamp.
Pistorius denies murdering Steenkamp, claiming he mistook her for a nighttime intruder. The state says he killed the 29-year-old model and law graduate intentionally following a fight and charged the multiple Paralympic champion with premeditated murder.
But while Pistorius has been finding ways to cope "with his sense of isolation," according to a statement by his family, he faces a life sentence in prison if found guilty.
"We as the National Prosecuting Authority are content with the progress thus far on the currently continuing investigations," the NPA said, "and we anticipate ... the investigations shall be wrapped up by or before August 2013."
The NPA said the hearing would be presided over by Acting Chief Magistrate Daniel Thulare, who is not the same magistrate from the bail application.
There have been only two reported sightings of Pistorius in public since he was freed: an image of him on his carbon fiber blades walking on his practice running track, and a visit to a Johannesburg restaurant.
Follow Gerald Imray at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP


text:
to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd and sorrows end.
This is one of the most pensive and gentle of the sonnets. It links in closely with the previous one, both in thought and layout. The discontent with life which was expressed there still remains in this one, as the poet surveys his past life and all the sorrows it has brought him.
The language is quasi-legal, possibly based on that appropriate to a manorial court investigating discrepancies in its accounts. Hence terms like, waste, expense, grievance, cancelled, tell o'er, paid before, are employed. When the account is finally reckoned up, with his dear friend added to the balance sheet, the discrepancies and losses disappear, and all sorrow is outweighed by the joy of remembering him.
The 1609 Quarto Version
WHen to the Seſſions of ſweet ſilent thought,
I ſummon vp remembrance of things paſt,
I ſigh the lacke of many a thing I ſought,
And with old woes new waile my deare times waſte:
Then can I drowne an eye(vn-vſ'd to flow)
For precious friends hid in deaths dateles night,
And weepe a freſh loues long ſince canceld woe,
And mone th'expence of many a vanniſht ſight.
Then can I greeue at greeuances fore-gon,
And heauily from woe to woe tell ore
The ſad account of fore-bemoned mone,
Which I new pay as if not payd before.
But if the while I thinke on thee (deare friend)
All loſſes are reſtord,and ſorrowes end.
- 1. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
- sessions - the sitting of a court. We still use phrases such as quarter sessions in connection with legal sittings. The court imagery is continued with summon up in the following line.
- 2. I summon up remembrance of things past,
- summon
up - as in summoning a witness.
See above. But there is also the meaning of summoning up spirits, as if
remembrances of the past were spirits which could be called back from
remembrance of things past - the phrase occurs in the bible also. Wisdom of Solomon, OT Apocrypha, 11.12. - 3. I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
- I sigh the lack of = I sigh for the absence of, for the fact that I never attained...
- 4. And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
- Shakespeare uses the new/old contrast in
two other sonnets
This were to be new made when thou art old, 2,
For as the sun is daily new and old, 76.
The freshness of his grief is contrasted with the age of his sorrows, which, to heighten his sense of despair, he resurrects.
my dear time's waste = the squandering of my precious time. waste also conveys the meaning of destruction and barrenness. - 5. Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
- Then
can I weep, from an eye which does not
often shed tears. Drowning one's eyes suggests copious weeping.
unused - Othello speaks of himself as not often weeping
......of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum.V.ii.135.
Men were expected not to weep (then as now). See Laertes words when he cannot hold back his tears for Ophelia. Ham.IV.7.185-9. - 6. For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
- dateless = without end.
- 7. And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
- And weep once more over the pain of one or more love affairs, though I have long since written off the sorrow associated with them.
- 8. And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
- the expense = the cost, the drain on (my) resources. The phrase probably refers more to emotional loss than to anything else, although it does link with line 3 above-I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, especially as sight had an archaic meaning of sigh, though fallen mostly into disuse by Shakespeare's time.
- 9. Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
- grievances
= griefs; injuries done
to me;
foregone = in the past, that have gone before. Also perhaps, because of the similarity of the words, with some of the meaning of foredone, 'killed, dead and gone'. Compare:
Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves,
And desperately are dead. KL.V.3.291-2. - 10. And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
- Woes
(sorrows) are listed as in an account
book, which he heavily peruses and tots up;
tell o'er - this is an accounting phrase, referring to the reading over and summation of lists of figures. We still have tellers in banks, although the word is falling into disuse. - 11. The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
- Recounting these lists to himself makes
him sad; hence sad account; sad also had the meaning of 'serious,
fore-bemoaned = wept for in former times. - 12. Which I new pay as if not paid before.
- The sorrow caused by an earlier grievance requires that a debit of tears be chalked up against it. Although this debit has been cleared in the past, he now pays it over again, as if he had not paid it off before.
- 13. But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
- The denouement of this concluding couplet is less dramatic than in the previous sonnet, in which the whole sestet lifts the poet from the doldrums. But it is no less effective. The simplicity and directness of the language contrasts with the heaping up of gloomy colours and sorrows which afflict him in the first 12 lines.
- 14. All losses are restor'd and sorrows end.
All losses are restored - this is probably the language of a legal settlement. restore = to make restitution for damages. OED.2.a.


text:
Hello there! I hope that you are ready for our next theme challenge here at Christmas card throwdown! We have a lovely theme prepared: MUSICAL NOTATION. You can make any type of card, but don't forget to follow the theme. :)
Here's some inspiration from the Design Team:
Now that you've seen what the Design Team has made, it's your turn to get creating! We'd love to see what you will come up with! You have until midnight BST on Friday, April 14th to link your card - that's 7.00 Eastern US time.